A liquid crystal display element is usually provided with a spacer between a color filter and an array substrate to give a uniform film thickness of a liquid crystal layer. It has been conventionally conducted to form such spacers by adding spherical particles such as polymethyl methacrylate or spherical silica to the liquid crystal layer to secure the formation of voids of 3 to 10 .mu.m.
These spherical particles would migrate within the liquid crystal layer. When the liquid crystal is pushed with a finger, etc., the voids vary due to the migration of the particles, and thereby the liquid crystal thickness is changed. This phenomenon sometimes results in troubles such as color-bleeding in the liquid crystal display or image distortion.
Thus, it is proposed to form spacers by using photosensitive resin compositions as a substitute for the spherical particles. It is possible to use, as a substitute for a spacer, a partly thickened photosensitive, colored composition for forming a color filter. Although such a colored composition layer containing a pigment can be formed simultaneously with the formation of the color filter, there arise some problems, i.e., a need of a high exposure amount for setting and insufficient setting of the bottom of the colored composition layer. In this case, moreover, the production cost is elevated due to use of an expensive pigment and a need of an additional step for preparing a pigment dispersion. Therefore, it has been required to develop a transparent photosensitive composition for forming the above-mentioned spacer.
On the other hand, JP-A-7-248625 discloses a radiation-setting composition for forming permanent films, for example, interlayer insulation films and protective films for liquid crystal displays with the use of a copolymer of an unsaturated carboxylic acid with a polymerizable compound containing epoxy group. (The term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application".) To achieve desired physical properties by this technique, however, heat setting should be performed after the formation of a photosensitive layer, which takes a long time usually. This technique suffers from another disadvantage that since it is necessary to use a carboxylic acid or an acidic component as a substitute therefor, the epoxy ring undergoes thickening or solidifying reactions during storage.